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Journal ArticleDOI

The institution of critique and the critique of institutions

08 Sep 2014-Thesis Eleven (SAGE Publications)-Vol. 124, Iss: 1, pp 20-52
TL;DR: The authors argue that Boltanski's pragmatic sociology makes an important contribution to two central concerns of critical theory: the empirical analysis of the contradictions and conflicts of critical theories, and the analysis of conflicts among critical theories.
Abstract: My paper argues that Luc Boltanski’s pragmatic sociology makes an important contribution to two central concerns of critical theory: the empirical analysis of the contradictions and conflicts of ca...
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2,842 citations

Book
23 Feb 2017
TL;DR: Debating Humanity as discussed by the authors explores sociological and philosophical efforts to delineate key features of humanity that identify us as members of the human species and defends a universalistic principle of humanity as vital to any adequate understanding of social life.
Abstract: Debating Humanity explores sociological and philosophical efforts to delineate key features of humanity that identify us as members of the human species. After challenging the normative contradictions of contemporary posthumanism, this book goes back to the foundational debate on humanism between Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger in the 1940s and then re-assesses the implicit and explicit anthropological arguments put forward by seven leading postwar theorists: self-transcendence (Hannah Arendt), adaptation (Talcott Parsons), responsibility (Hans Jonas), language (Jurgen Habermas), strong evaluations (Charles Taylor), reflexivity (Margaret Archer) and reproduction of life (Luc Boltanski). Genuinely interdisciplinary and boldly argued, Daniel Chernilo has crafted a novel philosophical sociology that defends a universalistic principle of humanity as vital to any adequate understanding of social life.

51 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Boltanski's pragmatic sociology is mainly inspired by pragmatism and ethnomethodology, but it is still concerned with sociology as a critical project of emancipation as discussed by the authors, which can greatly advance international political sociology by further developing a practice theoretical account which reconciles Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory and Pierre Bourdieu's praxeology.
Abstract: Luc Boltanski is one of the most important contemporary social theorists. Whether and how his sociology matters for International Relations (IR) theory has, so far, not been explored. Boltanski’s work, as this article demonstrates, can greatly advance international political sociology by further developing a practice theoretical account which reconciles Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory and Pierre Bourdieu’s praxeology. Boltanski’s pragmatic sociology is mainly inspired by pragmatism and ethnomethodology, but it is still concerned with sociology as a critical project of emancipation. He aims to renew critical sociology by focusing on the ‘critical capacities’ ordinary actors use in disputes and controversies of political life. Practices of justification and critique as triggers of conflicts and sources of agreements are consequently the subjects of analysis. This implies, furthermore, a strong notion of normativity in practice, which reveals a blind spot in current debates in IR. Justification becomes a social practice through which diverging legitimacy claims are tested under conditions of uncertainty. Such a view is conceptually and methodologically relevant for IR scholars interested in contested norms, moral ambiguity, and the fragile character of political reality. Considering Boltanski’s work broadens the empirical scope of practice theory and provides promising new directions for IR theory.

45 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In recent years, the use of experimental methodologies has emerged as a central means of evaluating international aid interventions as mentioned in this paper, and randomized control trials (randomized control trials) have been used to evaluate the effectiveness of aid interventions.
Abstract: In recent years, the use of experimental methodologies has emerged as a central means of evaluating international aid interventions. Today, proponents of randomized control trials (so-called random...

34 citations


Cites background from "The institution of critique and the..."

  • ...12 For discussions of pragmatic sociology, see C. Browne (2014), Bénatouïl (1999), Celikates (2006) and Wagner (1999)....

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References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The geography of contemporary bohemia is integral to Richard Florida's thesis of the rise of a new creative class in the USA as discussed by the authors, and the strong correlation between the presence of bohemians and innovative...
Abstract: The geography of contemporary bohemia is integral to Richard Florida’s thesis of the rise of a new creative class in the USA. The strong correlation between the presence of bohemians and innovative...

14 citations


"The institution of critique and the..." refers background in this paper

  • ...…although the inspired cité tends to emphasize the singular subjectivity of the artistic genius or the isolation of the saint rather than the quite different relational ideas of creativity that are associated with recent network models, self-organizing systems and rhizomes (Roberts 2012)....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The problem of conceptualizing social unity without resorting to an understanding of society that downplays heterogeneity and over-emphasizes the homogeneous is addressed by drawing on Castoriadis's own fundamental insights as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Despite its ground-breaking character, Castoriadis’s theory of society remains, in some respects, caught up in conceptual difficulties common to social theory generally, particularly the problem of conceptualizing social unity without resort to an understanding of society that downplays heterogeneity and over-emphasizes the homogeneous. Unlike many other theoretical approaches and traditions, Castoriadis’s work also offers a possible path out of this dilemma in the form of philosophical innovations which could enable us to conceptualize social unity without flattening the heterogeneous characteristics of the social. Castoriadis sometimes fails to recognize the full implications of his own rejection of ontological determinism, and so ends up proposing a far too deterministic and homogeneous model of social types. This essay aims to show how this might be remedied by drawing on Castoriadis’s own fundamental insights.

7 citations